The Fresno Bee reports: In a pointed new challenge, a Sacramento law firm is asking a judge to block Hernandez from describing himself as an 'astronaut/scientist/engineer' on the June ballot. The lawsuit notes Hernandez has left NASA.

What a fun trend this could be, minorities having to go to court for permission to publicly associate with their life's work! There's some job creation for you: Hernandez says on his Facebook page that it will cost $20,000 to hire lawyers to defeat the lawsuit.

Disgraced megalomaniacs like Newt Gingrich will still be referred to by their former titles such as 'Mr. Speaker,' but only as a special reward for being forced to resign his post in shame.

Also from the Fresno Bee excerpt:

'Hernandez's attempted use of 'astronaut' violates the Election Code's unambiguous requirement that a candidate's ballot designation reflect one's current profession, vocation, or one held during the previous calendar year,' the lawsuit states.

I don't know if this is true or not, that it's a violation of the Election Code here in California, but it seems like a childish quibble to me. [addendum]

As the article notes, he is the son of migrant farm workers. Inspired by the words of his father, he took American education seriously and eventually became what I consider to be a hero. (C'mon, a freaking astronaut qualifies as "Hero" in my book.)

Hernández, who is now running against incumbent Congressman Jeff Denham in the 10th Congressional District, emphasized how his parents influenced his education and career.

"I see a lot of me in you," Hernández told the students who took part in the 'Dream to be a Hero' motivational talk organized by the Club Laitnoamericano del Valle Central. "I am not that different than you are.

We can't have that, now can we?/

This is also part of what pisses me off about hard-core anti-immigrant -------s. Would that they had their way, we'd be minus one inspiring astronaut right now, and our nation would be lesser for it.

UPDATE: H/T Wrenchwench (thank you for this): Here’s Jose Hernandez talking about how he became an astronaut and why he’s running for Congress.

"And don't think Oh, this is just something that happens in the Deep South."

With the Bradlee Dean debacle still fresh in our minds, Sean Faircloth gives a very compelling speech on the subject of religious bullying of children, and how it is aided by the government and taxpayer dollars.

"That was a cultural mindset that the space program brought upon us and we reaped the benefits of economic growth because you had people wanting to become scientists and engineers who are the people who enable tomorrow to exist today. And even if you are not a scientist or technologist you will value that activity, and that in the 21st century are the foundations of tomorrow's economies and without it we might as well slide back to the cave because that's where we're headed right now, broke."

A Salvadoran flag wrapped around his neck to block out the sun, Geremias Romero hunches low to the ground alongside the other laborers, following the tractor along rows of cantaloupes.

He reaches into the leafy green rows of fruit, touches a melon to gauge its ripeness, and then tosses it into a cart, where another laborer boxes it. Walk, pick, toss. The pattern goes on all morning.

Harvesting cantaloupes for $8.25 an hour isn't the job that Romero, 28, dreamed of as a child. Born in Newark, N.J., to immigrant parents from El Salvador, he graduated from high school and has taken classes at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and Merced Community College. He has experience as a special education teacher but, unable to find a teaching job, he's started working in the fields.

Hard work is OK"I'd rather keep myself working than get in trouble," he said, wiping his hands on his ripped jeans, stained with grass. "My dad started from nothing. He worked hard, so I don't mind working hard, too."

Many young Americans are finding themselves worse off than their parents were at their age, without jobs or working below their skill and education levels. The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds is 17.4 percent, up from 10.6 percent in 2006.

The first was TJ. Then came Samantha, Aaron, Nick, and Kevin. Over the past two years, a total of nine teenagers have committed suicide in a Minnesota school district represented by Rep. Michele Bachmann—the latest in May—and many more students have attempted to take their lives. State public health officials have labeled the area a "suicide contagion area" because of the unusually high death rate.

Some of the victims were gay, or perceived to be by their classmates, and many were reportedly bullied. And the anti-gay activists who are some of the congresswoman's closest allies stand accused of blocking an effective response to the crisis and fostering a climate of intolerance that allowed bullying to flourish. Bachmann, meanwhile, has been uncharacteristically silent on the tragic deaths that have roiled her district—including the high school that she attended.

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The anti-gay climate in the schools in Bachmann's district has been so extreme that it has attracted the attention of the Justice Department and the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.

It's a very sad and disturbing read, but an important one. We are failing our nation and our nation's children by allowing this kind of demonization to continue.

Since the advent of trendy theology in the 19th century, it has become fashionable to regard the Goldilocks narrative as just a story - that it didn't really happen. Nowadays many Christians even dismiss it as a myth, yet they still call themselves Christians. This is an appalling state of affairs, and it is even more tragic that few of the major Christian apologists have tackled this issue head-on. It is time to set the record straight, and affirm the historical Truth of the Goldilocks narrative. I intend to show that it is overwhelmingly more likely that the Goldilocks story is literally true than not, and not only does it constitute Warranted True Belief, it is *necessarily* true in a deep ontological and cosmological sense, i.e. if the G3B model was any different, our universe would be deeply inimical to human life, and we would not even be here.

"The Internet has given atheists, agnostics, skeptics, the people who like to destroy everything that you and I believe, the almost equal access to your kids as your youth pastor and you have... whether you like it or not," said McDowell, who is author of two books on Christian apologetics, More than a Carpenter and New Evidence that Demands Verdict.

The belief or worldview, McDowell said, forms values, which in turn drive one's behavior. The worldview "is where we are falling down the most anywhere in the world." So what is the prevalent worldview in America today? "There is no truth apart from myself," that's what even many young "evangelical, fundamental, born-again Christians" believe, he said.

While 51 percent of evangelical Christians did not believe in absolute truth in an earlier survey, the percentage escalated to 62 in 1994. In 1999, it jumped to 78 percent. "You know what it is now?" asked McDowell. "One of the most staggering statistics in history of the church 91 percent said there is no absolute truth apart from myself."

ODL! They're coming for our children! Anyway, I'm guessing by "absolute truth", McDowell means the literal, inerrant truth of the Christian bible. I must admit that I can not figure out what he means, or what he thinks he means with the phrase "there is no [absolute] truth apart from myself". I've never met anyone who says or believes that their self is the only truth.

"Now here is the problem," said McDowell, "going all the way back, when Al Gore invented the Internet [he said jokingly], I made the statement off and on for 10-11 years that the abundance of knowledge, the abundance of information, will not lead to certainty; it will lead to pervasive skepticism. And, folks, that's exactly what has happened. It's like this. How do you really know, there is so much out there This abundance [of information] has led to skepticism. And then the Internet has leveled the playing field [giving equal access to skeptics]."

So an increased wealth of information and knowledge is a bad thing? A level "playing field" of ideas, an equality of speech for all, is evil?

I suppose it's no wonder certain politicians seek to cripple the internet in this country, if they see it as an easily accessible fountain of knowledge that threatens their religious supremacist stranglehold on this nation which may just unseat them from their obscene, privileged status.

While Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has forcefully denounced the Medicaid program for swelling the "welfare rolls," the mental health clinic run by her husband has been collecting annual Medicaid payments totaling over $137,000 for the treatment of patients since 2005, according to new figures obtained by NBC News.

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When asked by anchor Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" about the story's assertion that her husband's counseling clinic had also gotten federal and state funds, Bachmann replied that it was "one-time training money that came from the federal government. And it certainly didn't help our clinic."

At another point, she said, "My husband and I did not get the money," adding that it was "mental health training money that went to the employees."

But state records show that Bachmann & Associates has been collecting payments under the Minnesota's Medicaid program every year for the past six years. Karen Smigielski, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services, said the state's Medicaid program is funded "about 50-50" with federal and state monies. The funds to Bachmann & Associates are for the treatment of low-income mentally ill patients and are based on a "fee for service" basis, meaning the clinic was reimbursed by Medicaid for the services it provided.

Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The Nation can ill afford to allow such a result. The risks, the costs, the disruptions and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: the Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns.

I sit here and write this in the same way I would try and write to my own mother, expressing gratitude for how she has helped me. Thank you. You have helped me throughout my best and my worst. You have seen me at my weakest and you have encouraged me to do what is right for me.

I first went to you when I was a mere seventeen year old. Drunk off cheap wine, I ended up in a man's room, a man who was ten years my senior. I didn't want to have sex and he did, pushing and cajoling, blocking the doorway while telling me to relax. Not being okay with the answer of "no." Tired, I asked him to at least use a condom, which he would slide off during sex. I would only realize this when it was considered "too late" and be told, "It wasn't [his] problem." I was angry, hurt, and scared. He was able to walk away from the situation he had manipulated so well and I was left to pick up the pieces of the consequences. I was the girl that I had been warned about- the one who didn't take enough precautions, the one who had it coming, the one who had no one to blame but herself.

I panicked as I fled to what I thought was our city's women's center, but in actuality was a "crisis" center. At the time, I was living in the South and this was, unfortunately, all too common. As common as being denied birth control by pharmacists, as common as the embrace of abstinence sex ed while gonorrhea and syphilis outbreaks were happening, and as common as casting out pregnant teenagers, yet cheering the fathers absolved of any responsibility, worrying about their "bright future" and how these girls were going to "take it away." These centers, now blindingly obvious to me, preyed on naivete, secrecy, and shame  mine at the time. They were set up for those moments of desperation and fear, waiting with open arms to convince young women of what they thought was the best decision to make.

While exploring Australia's Great Barrier Reef, professional diver Scott Gardner heard an odd cracking sound and swam over to investigate. What he found was a footlong blackspot tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii) holding a clam in its mouth and whacking it against a rock. Soon the shell gave way, and the fish gobbled up the bivalve, spat out the shell fragments, and swam off. Fortunately, Gardner had a camera handy and snapped what seem to be the first photographs of a wild fish using a tool.

Tool use, once thought to be the distinctive hallmark of human intelligence, has been identified in a wide variety of animals in recent decades. Although other creatures don't have anything quite like a circular saw or a juice machine, capuchin monkeys select "hammer" rocks of an appropriate material and weight to crack open seeds, fruits, or nuts on larger "anvil" rocks, and New Caledonian crows probe branches with grass, twigs, and leaf strips to extract insects. In addition to primates and birds, many animals, including dolphins, elephants, naked mole rats, and even octopuses, have shown forms of the behavior.

"School choice" advocates claim they are working to improve educational opportunities by using public funds to subsidize private school students.

Many of these private schools use A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press or other fundamentalist curricula. The textbooks in these series teach young earth creationism; hostility toward other religions and other sectors of Christianity, including Roman Catholicism; and a biased version of history that is often factually incorrect. This video focuses on Pennsylvania's EITC program, but the information is applicable in states across the nation with school vouchers or corporate tax credit programs.

WASHINGTON (AP)  Michele Bachmann's claim that she has "never gotten a penny" from a family farm that's been subsidized by the government is at odds with her financial disclosure statements. They show tens of thousands in personal income from the operation.

And, on a less-substantive note, she flubbed her hometown history when declaring "John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa," and "that's the kind of spirit that I have, too," in running for president.

The actor was born nearly 150 miles away. It was the serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr. who lived, for a time, in Waterloo.

Those were among the latest examples of how the Minnesota congresswoman has become one to watch  for inaccuracies as well as rising support  in the Republican presidential race.

Bachmann's wildly off-base assertion last month that a NATO airstrike might have killed as many as 30,000 Libyan civilians, her misrepresentations of the health care law, misfires on other aspects of President Barack Obama's record and historical inaccuracies have saddled her with a reputation for uttering populist jibes that don't hold up.

The article goes on to list a few of her 'bomblets', and how those are at odds with the facts. From oil, to Libya, to personal income.

StoryBiôrn, an old Viking, is determined to reach Valhalla, the warrior's afterlife full of excessive drinking and debauchery. To gain entry he has to die honorably in battle, but he discovers that the right death isn't so easy.

Also, legalizing gay marriage is illegal, and New York is now a Marxist King George III.

Abolition of the family! ... The bourgeois family will disappear, in the course [of history] as its supplement [private property] disappears, and both will vanish with the destruction of capital.

 The Communist Manifesto, Chapter 2, Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

On July 25, 2011, MSNBC and the other undereducated, misinformed and politicized news media proclaimed, "N.Y. becomes sixth and largest state to legalize gay marriage." Of course, this is the same group of fellow travelers and useful idiots who misapply the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to the respective states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," to deny Christians and soon Jews the freedom of worship, when the clause plainly recognizes the inalienable freedom of worship.

Either of these distortions of real truth is more of the same Marxist double speak. The New York state government has no authority to legalize homosexual marriage, whether the government was conscious of the Marxist thrust of its illegal actions or just being a useful idiot in the advance of Marx's goal to destroy the family.

Pages could be, have been and should be written about the progressive Marxist destruction of the American constitutional republic. And pages could be, have been and should be written about the destructive nature of the homosexualization of the culture. With regard to the illegal action of the New York state government, it is more important to understand clearly that the civil government has no authority in area of the free exercise of religion such as marriage. If it has no authority and tries to exercise power not vested to it, then the state is acting illegally.

So that you don't buy the lie, this commentary focuses on the fact that, intentionally or not, too many in the press, the mass media, the government and the education establishment have confused the citizens of America about the institution of marriage.

There's more at the link, if you can stand it. And just to add a little flavor, or context perhaps, a blast from the past...

As most of you already know, the production company Premise Media went bankrupt. Their execrable propaganda film, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", is on the auction block. The online auction is proceeding now, and will end on Tuesday, June 28th.

The auction promises that besides all available rights and interests in the finished film itself (there is an existing distribution contract), the winner will get all the production materials and rights to them. Want to know what was in the rest of the interviews with Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers? I know I would like to have that material archived and made available to the public, among other things that Premise Media found inconvenient to include in their film.

There was talk among individuals on "After the Bar Closes" about the auction. Kristine Harley pointed out that, depending on exactly what is in the production materials, there may well be "Wedge Document 2" in there somewhere. When the "academic freedom" label on religious antievolution goes to court, it could be very handy to have those materials on hand.

But any one individual is unlikely to have the wherewithal to make the winning bid on this.

Today, the TalkOrigins Archive Foundation approved a resolution to use our funds on hand to put in a bid on "Expelled". We hope to make many of the materials freely available and to collaborate with other groups seeking to produce rebuttals to claims made in "Expelled". To that end, we would like your help. Our final bid amount will be determined by funds on hand and what has come in via our PayPal donation button by Monday, June 27th. This is because there are delays in transfers between PayPal and the bank, and (hopefully!) we'll need to pay out of our bank account.

Senators Marcus Rubio of Florida and Orrin Hatch of Utah have introduced a bill that would make it a crime to take a minor across a state line to help her obtain an abortion, and would fine or imprison a provider who performed an abortion on a teen from a parental consent or notification state if that provider doesn't seek out the teen's parents before the procedure.---For many teens without local access to services, the closest provider may in fact be in a different state, regardless of laws, putting more burden on the teen to have to delay a procedure that gets more complicated as the pregnancy progresses.

The first comment at that link pretty much sums up what I was thinking:

"What if that child... was raped by a parent? it happens. Where is she to go? This is way to invasive and gee are these GOP ers not for Big Government invading everyones lives like a virus? Could have fooled me.

The American political and media elite have determined, for whatever reason, that the Constitution's eligibility requirements for the presidency are not important.

That is the only conclusion one can draw from the misinformation, disinformation and disinterest they have shown to the serious questions swirling around not only the unique case of Barack Obama but also to the definition of "natural born citizen" in future presidential elections.

It's not unprecedented that failing republics dumb down eligibility requirements for the presidency. It's not unprecedented that failing republics ignore or obscure eligibility requirements for the presidency. It's not unprecedented that failing republics make tragic mistakes in permitting non-qualified candidates to serve in the presidency.

It happened in 1932 in Germany with a candidate named Adolf Hitler. ---I can almost visualize the reaction to what I am saying here: "Farah is comparing Obama to Hitler!"

No, I am not.

Hitler is in a unique historical class of tyrants and fiends and mass murderers. There's Hitler and Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong. Together they are responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million people.

For perspective, Obama has merely contributed to the economic and moral degradation of the greatest country on earth.

I use the Hitler illustration only to demonstrate there are real-world consequences to bending the rules in constitutional republics for political expediency.

That's what happened in Germany in 1932.

It is happening again in America in the 21st century.

Sooo... not comparing Obama to Hitler? I'll pretend to grant him that, with the caveat that he is clearly comparing modern America with Nazi Germany.

IN JUST a few weeks single-celled yeast have evolved into a multicellular organism, complete with division of labour between cells. This suggests that the evolutionary leap to multicellularity may be a surprisingly small hurdle.

Multicellularity has evolved at least 20 times since life began, but the last time was about 200 million years ago, leaving few clues to the precise sequence of events. To understand the process better, William Ratcliff and colleagues at the University of Minnesota in St Paul set out to evolve multicellularity in a common unicellular lab organism, brewer's yeast.

Their approach was simple: they grew the yeast in a liquid and once each day gently centrifuged each culture, inoculating the next batch with the yeast that settled out on the bottom of each tube. Just as large sand particles settle faster than tiny silt, groups of cells settle faster than single ones, so the team effectively selected for yeast that clumped together.

Sure enough, within 60 days - about 350 generations - every one of their 10 culture lines had evolved a clumped, "snowflake" form. Crucially, the snowflakes formed not from unrelated cells banding together but from cells that remained connected to one another after division, so that all the cells in a snowflake were genetically identical relatives. This relatedness provides the conditions necessary for individual cells to cooperate for the good of the whole snowflake.